Mara Buchbinder has launched the Study to Examine Physicians’ Pandemic Stress (STEPPS) with funding from the Greenwall Foundation and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified ongoing stress, overwork, and disillusionment among the healthcare workforce. Healthcare professionals responding to the pandemic are experiencing crises of moral integrity and personal and professional wellbeing. STEPPS integrates qualitative interviews with conceptual analysis to investigate moral and occupational stress experienced by physicians working on the front lines of COVID-19 care in four American cities: New York City, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Miami. The project will result in evidence-based recommendations, with input from an expert advisory panel, to guide systems-level changes urgently needed to protect physicians’ moral integrity and occupational wellbeing. Co-Investigators on the project include Dr. Tania Jenkins (UNC Sociology), Dr. Nancy Berlinger (The Hastings Center), and Dr. John Staley (UNC Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center).